Family Christmas Traditions You will want to Start

Family Christmas Traditions You will want to Start; Over 30 of the best Christmas traditions to make memories with your family that will last a lifetime.

If you are looking for ideas to begin new family traditions, this is the place to be! I am sure you will find several new Family Christmas Traditions you will want to Start!

We have several of our own; some from my family, some from my husband’s and some that we started together. I asked my blogging friends what they do and got lots more great ideas!

Leave a comment and let me know how many you already do and which are new that you would love to make your own!

What does your family do that isn’t on the list?

How to make these family Christmas traditions real to your children:

Or maybe you already have all of the traditions and you feel like you need ideas of how to instill in your kids a love for them like you have.

Chelsea from Someday I’ll Learn says, “We actually have a tradition of having an intentional family discussion about Christmas traditions! We try to give the kids context for the flurry of activity and people who inevitably appear (either in person or – this year – on cards on the mantle) so that they grow up with a respect for their own culture and the different ways that other families celebrate” and she wrote an article called How to Explain Family Christmas Traditions to Kids.

Other fun Christmas Games and Treats:

The Family Christmas Traditions:

Decorate gingerbread houses or gingerbread men.

We actually enjoyed getting the house kits on clearance after Christmas to do when things quieted down.

Sarah from Keep Calm and Eat Ice Cream says, “My Mum and I have been making gingerbread for Christmas for as long as I can remember. Every year we made bucket loads to give away as gifts to friends and family. Now I have my own boys we do the same thing, with the same recipe. The smell of real Christmas trees and gingerbread baking always means Christmas to me.” Here is her Gingerbread Men recipe.

Or if you dislike making the gingerbread or need a gluten free alternative, try Rice Krispie Candy Houses.

Make homemade treats together.

Trina, from Redneck Rhapsody has an Annual Christmas Family Bake. What fun!

See 100 Christmas Desserts Kids Can Make

Watch Christmas movies

Here is a list of 25 days of Christmas movies.

Drive around town to look at the Christmas lights.

Make it even more fun with this Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt!

Awilla from One Perfectly Imperfect Mom says, “One of our family traditions for the past 5 years is to find the best Christmas lights shows around us and visit with the kids. My twins always fill with delight and my oldest daughter loves it. So every week in December we visit one light show. So much fun.” 

Fill shoeboxes with treats for children who wouldn’t have Christmas otherwise.

Many years we have filled shoeboxes for children in other countries. Samaritan’s Purse ships thousands of boxes each year to these precious children. You can fill your own boxes or fill one online. Check out their website if you would like to see a video explaining their ministry, see children opening their boxes or see how you can build a shoebox or even volunteer at a processing center. You can even get a link to follow the box(es) you packed!

Take an annual Christmas photo of the family.

We sent Christmas cards that included a family picture when the kids were growing up. It is such fun to look back through them from years past.

Scott from Holmescooks.com takes a picture of the kids sitting on the landing waiting to come down and attack the tree. It dates back to when he was a little boy!

Every year, our family takes our own Christmas photos either at a Christmas tree farm or local Christmas event. We love using fun props and creating cute Christmas card pictures or photos to put on Instagram. We turn it into a festive event with Christmas carols and hot cocoa!  Marcie gives great tips in her post DIY Christmas Family Portraits                         

Go out to sing Christmas carols with friends or family.

This is always fun. Or you don’t even have to go out;

Gale from Imaginative Homeschool says, “For years, the month before Christmas, in lieu of a lullaby, we would sing Christmas songs before bed. Each of my children got to choose one, and then the last one I would choose.”

Give new pj’s on Christmas Eve.

Alice, from Alice in Sheffield says, “Every Christmas the Pyjama Fairy visits on Christmas Eve and leaves New Christmas themed pyjamas for everyone to put on because you’ve got to be your best dressed self for the big day.”

Do an Advent Calendar.

Laura and her family do an Advent Calendar every year. See her post; A Minimalist and Zero Waste Advent Calendar (with 58 Kindness, Traditions, and Activity-Based, Non-Candy Ideas)

Give Back to someone in need.

Audrey from Two Pink Peonies says, “Each year we pick an animal to donate to a family in need in a developing nation through Holt International. We buy our children a stuffed animal version of that animal and then we learn all about the animal (last year we did cows and learned how the cows provide milk and fertilizer for families). We also learn about the country that the animal will be going to. It’s not only a great way to help someone, but we have learned a lot!” Our New Family Christmas Tradition to Give Back

Joni from Life Unflaked says “When my kids hit the tween years and outgrew little kid toys, we started a new annual tradition. We choose an “angel” from a tree at Walmart with the name of a 6-9 year old boy with interests similar to my boys’. We split up in Walmart to shop and meet back with our choices. It’s so much fun to see how excited my now grown (31, 22, and 19) kids get when they’re buying Legos and Star Wars figures for a little boy. It’s now our favorite Christmas tradition.”

Keri from Bon Voyage with Kids says, “We also do two charitable things as a family. One is we take our kids to the grocery store and buy a set dollar amount of food and bring it to a food bank or food shelter. We include our kids in the process and the delivery and sometimes families are picking up while we are dropping off. We also pick out cards from the giving tree at our church and have our kids help us shop for their wish list, wrap them and deliver them to church back under the tree. It is an important part of our family Christmas traditions.”   

Nicole from Coffee and Carpool says to Help Kids Focus on Giving by teaching them to give to others.

Open a Christmas Eve box

We open a Christmas Eve box the night before Christmas filled with fun activities for our family to do while we wait for Santa, says Jennifer from Healthy Happy Impactful. She gives lots of great ideas for your Christmas Eve Box here.

Leave a plate of cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve.

This is an old time favorite.

Read one chapter of Luke each day in December

Tiffany, from Saving Talents, wrote a great article about How to Keep Christ in Christmas all Through December.

Have a birthday cake for Jesus and sing Happy Birthday.

It is His birthday, after all! My mother-in-law always did this and it is something I will do for my grandchildren too.   

Read the Christmas story from the Bible

Read it in Luke 2:1-20 and/or Matthew 1:18-2:12.

Write a letter to Santa.

Marcie from Marcie in Mommy Land says, “We always love writing a letter to Santa where we reflect on our year and share our hopes for the new year. It’s a great opportunity to practice letter writing and expressing ourselves.” See How to Write a Letter to Santa Claus” and get free Christmas printables.

Do a Family Secret Santa.

Holly from Simplify Create Inspire wrote about how they Save Big at Christmas with Family Secret Santa.

Unwrap and read a Christmas book every day in December leading up to Christmas

Stacy, from Protecting Your Pennies wrote a fun article A to Z Advent Calendar for Kids

We enjoy an easy version of the 25 days of Christmas books countdown. Each day we unwrap a “new” book with love, says Jennifer from Healthy Happy Impactful. She wrote how to do the Christmas Countdown with books easily and gave some great ideas.

Family games and puzzles

Stephanie’s family, from Explore More Clean Less, plays board games together on Christmas Eve.

Joni, from Life Unflaked, says, “Another favorite is building a new puzzle during that quiet, lost week after Christmas. As soon as the Christmas debris is cleared away, we put it out and work on it throughout the week. It usually ends up with my son and me up at 3AM, eating stale Christmas cookies and watching movies while putting in the last few pieces.”

I’m with Holly says, “We love to do a fun, holiday themed puzzle on Christmas! It’s a great activity for the whole family, inspires us to share stories and laugh, and even the youngest kids can participate by sorting puzzle pieces by color.” 

Make crafts together

Each year we start off decorating our house with new DIY Christmas crafts. We spend an afternoon listening to Christmas music, eating Christmas treats and craft away while our fireplace is keeping us warm. This year’s project is Easy Flame Free Snowman Luminaries

Brittany from Mom Wife Busy Life makes this gumdrop Christmas Tree every year.

Have a Christmas Pickle

Scarlet from Family Focus Blog tells us How to Start The Christmas Pickle Tradition.

Make the house smell good.

Kelly, from Montana Happy, says, “Every year I make dried orange slices for my tree. They are gorgeous to look at and make the home smell amazing. When you hang them in front of white twinkle lights, they look like stained glass windows.”

Nadine, from As They Grow, says, “We make orange and clove pomanders where we make patterns out of cloves stuck into the outside of whole oranges. Then we tie them up with Christmas ribbon and hang them around the house. They smell wonderfully festive.” 

Save your stockings until after Christmas.

Krystle, from Baking Beauty, says they save their stockings until the next day to help with post-Christmas letdown.

Make getting together the gift.

Jody from My Travel Obsession says, “Every other year, we take a big family vacation (somewhere within driving distance for all). I’m talking parents, kids, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins…the whole crew. We rent a BIG house & all stay together somewhere fun. No gifts, just a fun time together in a new place. Last year there were 26 of us! 🙂 It’s a blast!!!”

Light a Bayberry Candle.

Lisa explains the bayberry candles tradition and includes a poem.

Decorate your stockings.

Charlene from Hess Unacademy says, “We have started buying cheap stockings at the Dollar Tree very year and letting the kids color their stockings before we hang them up. We started this because stockings are so expensive and we keep losing ours…but now the kids look forward to decorating their own stockings every year and just plan on spending a few dollars on this fun tradition every year .” 

Make a family bucket list.

Melissa from By Mellowe says, “Since we won’t be able to travel home to family this year, we struggled with how to make Christmas fun. We decided on a Christmas Family Bucket List (free printable included). Our kids went from being disappointed to excited now we have activities we can check off as a family. I think we’ll keep this tradition no matter where we celebrate Christmas in the future!” 

Set up a Nativity Scene.

Crystal from Simply Full of Delight says, “One of our Christmas traditions is that we set up a small Nativity scene under our Christmas tree. It’s a great way to teach our little ones the story of Jesus’ birth. My nativity set is actually part of another tradition my grandmother started. She gave me a piece of the nativity scene each year for Christmas when I was a child. Now I have a full set to share with my children and precious memories of the one who gave it to me.” 

Visit Santa.

Keri from Bon Voyage with Kids says, “One of our family traditions is visiting Santa every year, wearing Christmas sweaters, and using that photo as our holiday card. I frame one of the printed cards each year and use it as Christmas decorations. We have one for each year since our son was 9 months old all the way up to this year when my kids are 11, 8 and 8. I plan to do it until they are adults (if they let me!) It is wonderful to see them every year and how our kids have grown.”  Check out Keri’s Santa Claus Around the World post!

Serve Favorite Foods.

Jessica from The Forked Spoon says, “Snert is a family tradition of mine going back to my Mothers Dutch side of the family who came from Holland. You see, Split Pea Soup (or Snert to all my Dutch friends) is a family tradition at my house. Somewhat predictable come the holiday season, my family would make a holiday ham for Christmas day and follow-up with Split Pea Soup just as soon as we worked through the leftovers.”  She shares her recipe for Split Pea Soup with Ham.

Cyndy from The Art of Food and Wine says, “Every year my family kicks off Christmas by making a batch of these cookies. My grandmother made them and passed the recipe on to me. We called them Snow on The Mountain but most know them as Crinkle Cookies.”  She shares her recipe for Dark Chocolate Crinkle Cookies.

Jenny from Wholesome Family Living says, “Every year for Christmas, our family goes to a Christmas Eve service at church, drives around and looks at Christmas lights, and finishes the night with pizza and a Christmas movie. Our Christmas morning always starts with a photo in our Christmas jammies at the top of our stairs before everyone races to the stockings in the family room. After stockings we always have breakfast with the BEST hot chocolate (link below!) before opening presents. We spend the afternoon playing new games together and helping the kids play with their new toys or reading their new books. We enjoy just spending time together for the holidays!” She shares her recipe for The Best Hot Chocolate.

Stephanie from Sonshine Kitchen makes these special Ham and Cheese Sandwiches with her family only at Christmas.

Put up the tree together.

Erin from Friday Night Cocktails says, “We always put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, put the lights on and watch Home Alone while eating leftover pie as a family. This year, my youngest daughter helped with the tree while my 15 year old son got the movie ready and got everyone settled in with blankets and popcorn. It’s such a great night to look forward to after all the stress from the day before!”

A special tree ornament is a popular family Christmas tradition. Make or buy a tree ornament each year.

Buy an ornament:

Make it special to something especially big that year. My parents bought each of my kids a special baby ornament the year they were born and we have one from the year we were married—it is 30 years old! 😊 These ornaments bring sweet memories when they are pulled out each year.

Nicole from Coffee and Carpool, celebrates her children’s year by buying a special ornament for their tree for them.

Clarissa from Modern Hipster Mama says, “My husband and I have given each other an ornament every Christmas Eve since we started dating. The ornament describes the year or an inside-joke about the year. We also buy an ornament together. Our entire tree is filled with 11 years of Christmases together!”  

Kiersten from Hiking in my Flipflops says, “We decorate our tree with many ornaments collected from the trips we’ve taken over the past few years. We always look for an ornament that represents the area we visit, like a sand dollar ornament from the beach or one from a National Park. Our newest tradition is to start the day with a family hike on Christmas Eve, with everyone wearing Santa hats.” 

Alice from Mommy to Mom says, “Every Christmas season, we go out and buy a new ornament for each of us to hang on our tree. It has to represent something that reminds us of a favorite thing from that year. For example, one year my daughter really loved watching The Little Mermaid, so we bought her an Ariel ornament. It’s really nice looking at our tree each year and having those memories.”

Erica from Raspberries & Kohlrabi says, “Every year I gift my husband and son an ornament that signifies something important that happened that year. Some years it has been graduating from college, getting a dog, buying a house, or the birth of our son. It is nice to look at our Christmas tree and be reminded of how far we have come and how lucky we have been.” 

Make an Ornament:

Homemade ornaments from kid’s artwork

Easy beach Christmas ornament

Family time capsule ornament

We also have a post with 35 Christmas Ornaments Kids Can Make!

Leave a comment and let me know how many you already do and which are new that you would love to make your own!

What Family Christmas Tradition does your family do that isn’t on the list?

“This post has been included by Twinkl among their top picks for their favorite Christmas traditions“

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